Identification of a surface protective antigen, CSP of Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus.

Qiang Fu, Zigong Wei, Yaosheng Chen, Pingping Xiao, Zhaohui Lu, Xiaohong Liu

State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, North Third Road, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510006, PR China.

Vaccine 2013 Feb 27

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Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus (Streptococcus zooepidemicus, SEZ) is an important pathogen associated with opportunistic infections of a wide range of species, including horses, pigs and humans. The absence of suitable vaccine confounds the control of SEZ infection. Cell surface protein (CSP) has been identified as an immunogenic protein in the previous study but its protective efficacy is not clear. In the present study, the purified recombinant CSP could elicit a significant humoral antibody response and could confer significant protection against challenge with lethal dose of SEZ in mice model. CSP could adhere to the HEp-2 cells confirmed by flow cytometry and inhibit adherence of SEZ to HEp-2 cells in an adherence inhibition assay. In addition, real-time PCR demonstrated that CSP was induced in vivo following infection of mice with SEZ. Our findings suggest that CSP may play a potential role in the pathogenesis of SEZ and could be a target for the development of a novel subunit vaccine against SEZ infection. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Qiang Fu, Zigong Wei, Yaosheng Chen, Pingping Xiao, Zhaohui Lu, Xiaohong Liu. Identification of a surface protective antigen, CSP of Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus. Vaccine. 2013 Feb 27;31(10):1400-5